Monday, December 24, 2012

Psycho Street (2011)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

"Lock Away Your Alien Daughters."

To quote Sid Haig who played Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses; "Do you like blood, violence, freaks of nature?" That is essentially how I felt after viewing this film. This is what you get with Psycho Street. Created and executive produced by Marv Blauvelt, this is like an independent and a hardcore version of the old school Creepshow films from the 1980's.

We start with Leyla who is played by Tiffany Shepis, a scream queen who has starred in numerous low budget horror films, is the attractive woman next door with a sinister secret. A couple has moved in next door, Austin Dossey as Casey and Raine Brown as Aubrie Harris. Leyla has all ready gotten her hands on Casey and Aubrie comes looking for him. Leyla lures her in and begins to tell her about the horrors of living in the town of "Kronenburg".

We segment into Hypochondriac. This story takes place at a doctor's office. Nurse Lovejoy, played by Raine Brown; hits on every backwards redneck and plans on bringing down the new doctor taking over the practice, played by Marv Blauvelt. We see a crazy old lady, Alan Rowe Kelly, who comes in and goes on about every illness under the sun. And the side plot to this short is that Nurse Lovejoy is fascinated by a lady who was abducted by aliens and is going to give birth to an alien. This crazed lady arrives in the office one day and that's what brings the whole short together.

In the next story, Anti-Bodies, a woman has her daughter tied and sells her to any and every man who can pay up. This is the one where you can kinda feel uncomfortable until we get to the twist which comes quickly. We get into a dark area with sadism and rape that is kinda comparable to A Serbian Film, until the twist. Without going too much into it; it's probably the sleaziest of the short stories in this film.

We go back into the story line of Leyla and Aubrie and Leyla's intentions are made clear. Aubrie is attacked and then thrown down into the basement where someone is hiding. Then we get into the final story, Lewis, about a woman, named Amanda, takes her daughter and goes to a small town. Once in the small town, the locals start to go a little crazy; as it is their "breeding season". We learn that the townsfolk worship some sort of demon and Amanda and her daughter is the key.

My thoughts on the film is simple; if this was made in the 1980's, this would be a classic. No doubt in my mind. Raine Brown stole the show and I think she will probably go far in the business and is highly under-rated as an actress. I looked her up on the IMDB and she's got dozens of titles since the year 2000. The other person who stood out is the person who created all of this, Marv Blauvelt. His role as Dr. Combs in Hypochondriac is probably one of the best doctor roles I have seen. Tiffany Shepis is in the film for probably about ten to fifteen minutes and she looks great. She could probably lure me in and hack me up and throw me in the basement too. I give the film a 7/10.

Video: 3.5/5
Presented in 1080p, 1.78:1, MPEG2, and encoded at 13.12 GB; the transfer for Psycho Street sports an odd transfer. If I understood this correctly from the commentary, this was not all shot at once, so some of this must have been shot with different cameras at different points in time. The footage with Tiffany Shepis and Raine Brown looks crisp and great. Hypochondriac has a bit of a rougher look to it, I cannot put my finger on it. Anti-Bodies looks good, there's a lot of digital manipulations to the video in that short, as well with Lewis. It could be worse, but, since this was all shot on HD equipment, it looks good. I give it a 3.5/5.

Audio: 4.5/5
The film only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. It sounds good and it does it's job well. Sound effects sound great and most of the dialogue is clear. Some of the dialogue sounds a bit muted, or it could be how it was recorded during the Tiffany Shepis scenes. I give the audio a 4.5/5.

Extras: 5/5
There is not much in terms of extras; we have a commentary track, trailers, and an acting class. The commentary shows how much they all had fun making the film. Make references to other films and at one point, during Anti-Bodies, how some people can compare that to A Serbian Film. Marv Blauvelt talking about where the inspiration comes from for his portrayal of Dr. Combs and the whole premise for Hypochondriac. The trailers which is listed just as "Farmer's Daughters Trailer". It has the trailer for that film, as well as advertising that it is part of another anthology film called "Closed Casket".

Finally, you have the "Muscle Wolf Acting School". This centers around Marv Blauvelt talking to everyone about acting with testosterone. And this is where you can really appreciate everything, it's that they don't take themselves seriously. When Marv does the "pop quiz" and asks about steroids on the question, that's when it's like; "They're all having fun making movies". I give the extras a 5/5.

Overall: 4/5
This is an entertaining disc and I felt was worth the $20. I was surprised that my copy was personally autographed by Marv Blauvelt himself. This group has gotten some great talent in hand with their production on Psycho Street as well as having Michael Berryman with Closed Casket. I think what will make this group go far is that they can joke about themselves while being serious. I give this disc a 4/5.